What You Notice Around You Is What Defines You

I’m at the climbing gym in Portland, Oregon and it took me about 20 minutes to walk down here. It’s overcast and 37 degrees out. The gym isn’t too packed for 4pm, perhaps because it’s 12/28 and people are still out and about during the holiday season.

I could have instead noticed that my apartment was freezing cold and that the building manager yet again left another passive aggressive note on the main entry door to exert his dictatorship. I could have bitched to myself or to whoever would listen how shitty the weather is. 37 scrotal-shrinking-degrees with not a hint of direct sunlight. I could bitch about the shitty music selection at the gym, I believe today’s flavor would best be described as underground country? Wtf is this? I could complain about the 2 guys who are hogging the whole bouldering wall and not stepping back to see if some other poor soul wants to embarrass themselves on a V4.

Pay Attention To What You Notice – And What You Don’t

The things you notice throughout your day defines your state of mind. Do you notice all the negative shit? It’s most likely because you are in a negative state of mind. Perhaps your subconscious mind is looking for confrontation or strife. Do you instead notice all the beautiful and peaceful things around you? That’s because you are in a positive state of mind.

But sometimes we are conditioned from a young age to be bitchy little shits so naturally we only notice the negative things around us. That one is easy, just shift your present and conscious mind to pay more attention to the positive things. If, however, we are living miserable and stressed out lives then the mind naturally will be drawn to the negative energy around us.

Real Life Examples

If you are sitting at a cafe and only hear the screaming baby and not ‘listening’ to the cute couple sitting across from each other and talking to each other with only their eyes then you are an angry little mofo. JK. You’re probably not an angry mofo, but why spend this short life noticing all the negative shit. There is far more good energy than negative energy.

When you go for a drive don’t pay attention to the one car that cut you off instead focus on all the careful calm drivers taking the slower lanes to avoid the road-agro’s. You don’t have to ignore the bad or negative things. Notice them, observe them but don’t pay attention to them; don’t let them run circles in your head. If you do this even for a month you soon will not even sense when something upsetting happens around you.

So You Want Me To Be A Zombie

Does this mean you can no longer react to life’s events? Of course not, if someone bumps into your car or into your person while walking you can calmly bring it to their attention and deal with it from that calm state of mind. If, however, you are constantly looking for that negative event then you will pounce on the poor fuck that may have just not realized that there was a stop sign.

Face Your Fears

For the average person, your subconscious mind is perpetually in fight or flight mode. It’s worrying about falling anvils from the sky, intruders with oozies breaking into your house, people trying to steal your children and you being robbed/raped when walking to the grocery store. These fears are of course completely absurd. Sure, they might happen but they are so fucking rare that it is absurd to expend any energy thinking about them. Naturally, you won’t walk around in Compton in the middle of the night through gang territory to get to the single open 24/7 liquor store to buy your ‘forty.

Play this out in your mind; what is the worst thing that could happen if you just put your head down and continue to read your book while that toddler is screaming his vocal cords out? Nothing. What would happen if you just ignore the driver who is going 32.5 mph in the fast lane? Nothing. Stay with these moments, don’t force them out of your head, take slow breaths and just stay present without judging the situation, the person or yourself. Definitely don’t get up and leave the cafe like a butt-hurt brat and don’t tailgate the granny in the Benz in a passive aggressive style. Don’t even pass them just to cut them off to ‘teach them a lesson’. Many of these are just poor coping mechanisms, ineffective behavior learned over the years. You are finally a mature adult, take responsibility and take new paths through life.

Get Inspired By Those Around You

Have you ever been stopped by a cop who is just the nicest fucking human being out there? He/she still is doing their job above and beyond what they are paid to do. They calmly point out that your 124 mph clocked speed is slightly above the 45 mph legal limit for that street. They express genuine concern for your and other’s safety going that speed. They also express their compassion that you have to now get a ticket for this action. They explain to you what you have to do next and wish you well and off they go. Fuck me! How can you not be inspired by that? Well, we’re not raised to pay attention to these things in our busy goal-oriented lives. But, you can change that by drawing inspiration from such people and events.

Start Practicing Right Now

Are your victoria secret thongs riding too high in your crotch? Stay with that feeling for a moment and don’t jump to fix it. If your knee has been hurting for a few weeks just acknowledge it and don’t wish it to go away, don’t wish it to stay — nothing, just observe it and don’t make an event into your enemy.

Think back to your day today, what things annoyed you? What things inspired you?

What is annoying right now at this moment?